NEW YORK, Sept 15: The candidates of two major political parties weighed in on Wall Street’s turmoil on Monday with Senator Barack Obama calling the situation on Wall Street “the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression”, blaming the upheaval on the policies employed during the last eight years of a Republican-controlled White House.

“I certainly don’t fault Senator McCain for these problems, but I do fault the economic philosophy he subscribes to,” Obama said in a statement. “It’s a philosophy we’ve had for the last eight years one that says we should give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else.”

He added: “This country can’t afford another four years of this failed philosophy.”

“The challenges facing our financial system today are more evidence that too many folks in Washington and on Wall Street weren’t minding the store,” Obama observed. “Eight years of policies that have shredded consumer protections, loosened oversight and regulation, and encouraged outsized bonuses to CEOs while ignoring middle-class Americans have brought us to the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression.”Senator John McCain, the Republican nominee, said taxpayers should no longer be responsible for helping to bail out financial services firms that are in trouble.

“The taxpayers have already been burdened by the unexpected events at Bear-Stearns and the sadly predictable collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” he said, speaking at a one-quarter filled arena here. “We believe the time has come and gone where the taxpayer should be viewed as the solution to the problems that are not of their making.”

McCain cautioned against panic, given this weekend’s news that Lehman Brothers was filing for bankruptcy and the sale of Merrill Lynch, saying that he believed the economy remained strong.

“There’s tremendous turmoil in our financial market and on Wall Street,” McCain said. “People are frightened by these events. Our economy, I think still, the fundamentals of our economy are strong. But these are very, very difficult times. And I promise you we will never put America in this position again. We will clean up Wall Street. We will reform government.”